Nov. 23, 2013

Rick Nease/Detroit Free Press

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Detroit Free Press Staff Writer

When “60 Minutes” correspondent Bob Simon compared Detroit to war-torn Mogadishu last month, it put an exclamation point on the tsunami of negative publicity that the city has endured since declaring bankruptcy in July.

The decay and debt are more daunting than those facing any other American city. But you don’t have to be a Pollyanna to recognize that there are counter-narratives that complete a more nuanced portrait of Detroit like the Midtown revival, economic entrepreneurs, the city’s stable neighborhoods and the residents who keep them that way.

In the wake of such looking-glass contradictions and complexities, questions linger: Is the city doing enough to fight back against reductive stereotypes and superficial analysis? What are the consequences, both nationally and locally, of allowing others to define not only the city’s image, but its trajectory — and perhaps its destiny?

The challenge is not one of using slick marketing to put lipstick on the pig of bankruptcy. It’s about articulating a positive vision for a post-bankruptcy Detroit that can galvanize not only those living in the city and region, but those watching the drama unfold throughout the country and around the world. In other words, it’s about leadership and forging a consensus about what a post-bankruptcy Detroit can and should be.

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The lack of leadership and a cohesive narrative defining a future Detroit has people like Matt Seeger concerned. Seeger, dean of the College of Fine, Performing and Communication Arts at Wayne State University, is an expert in crisis communication and response. He’s written widely on corporate crises and disasters ranging from floods to earthquakes to anthrax attacks.

“In the absence of a strong, future-oriented and well-articulated narrative, other voices have come in to fill the gap in Detroit,” Seeger said. “What we have is lots of second-guessing, blame and a high degree of uncertainty that has extended over a long period. Timing is very important in a crisis. You need to get out there and offer the narrative quickly and early.

“It’s unfortunate that there hasn’t been a greater sense of cohesion that has emerged around this moment.”

There has certainly been push-back against the bad press. The Detroit Metro Convention & Visitors Bureau has launched a media campaign built around the theme of “America’s Great Comeback City.” A gang of 28 local CEOs took out $600,000 worth of full-page ads in the New York Times, Wall Street Journal and others to tout Detroit’s bright future. Earlier this month, a group of state and local power brokers, including Gov. Rick Snyder, Bill Ford, the presidents of Michigan State and Wayne State and others stumped for Michigan and Detroit in New York in meetings with site selection consultants and financial journalists, as well as businesspeople with ties to Michigan universities.

But these marketing efforts only address one part of Detroit’s communication vacuum. They leave aside the more vexing questions of vision and consensus building. They also open a window on yet another set of issues confronting anyone promoting Detroit: There are risks to overplaying the positive stories or providing a detailed blueprint when the recovery has so far been limited to a small urban core — and the livelihoods of so many everyday Detroiters remain at risk.

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The Free Press asked crisis communication specialists, foundation leaders and local and state tourism experts to address issues of leadership, marketing and messaging and the implications of newly elected Mayor Mike Duggan coming into office. Here’s what they said, starting with an extended conversation with Seeger.

Question: You said there’s been too much second-guessing in the wake of the bankruptcy filing in July. What do you mean?

Answer: We’re revisiting (former Mayor Kwame) Kilpatrick. We’re going back to see what happened in the history of Detroit. We’re second-guessing some of our business leaders. There is second-guessing around (emergency manager) Kevyn Orr’s strategy. I’m not suggesting that everything he’s doing is appropriate, but I am saying we become our own worst enemies by second-guessing every direction we’re pursuing.

Speed is critical. The sooner you get beyond the crisis and return to a state of normalcy — even if it’s a new normal — the better off you are. You want to stop the bleeding, stop the water coming in, whatever is creating harm, as quickly as possible.

Q: Aren’t we confined by the process, and don’t people have the right to throw up honest objections?

A: We have choices. The question is: Is there a vision that helps people understand how they can participate in a more constructive, optimistic process for this community, as opposed to getting caught up in a this-for-me, that-for-you discussion? People can make arguments, but in a crisis situation if we find ourselves only arguing or dealing with the courts, that’s not a constructive conversation.

Q: The vision you’re talking about is more than a marketing slogan that says Detroit is open for business, correct?

A: I’m talking about those efforts plus a larger portrayal of what the future might look like. People need something they can participate in, a path forward they recognize as logical. If all I’m hearing is negativity and how Detroit is like Mogadishu how does that leverage any potential goodwill? I don’t think the marketing efforts are giving us a compelling vision of the future. I think they provide a more realistic portrayal than we’re hearing from established media.

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Detroit right now is also the story of incredible optimism, growth and innovation, experimentation and art like I haven’t seen in 30 years. That’s the story that all of our leaders need to gravitate toward. At the same time, what we find in moments of resurrection is a strong leader, somebody like a Lee Iacocca, who can stand up and say “This is a way forward.” We haven’t had that. It’s been piecemeal, one step forward and two steps blaming somebody else. We need to find a way out of the circular firing squad.

Q: The mayoral campaign often seemed to be about who could bash Kevyn Orr the most. But now that Mike Duggan has been elected, what is his responsibility?

A: Duggan ran on his record as a turnaround expert. Turnaround will mean lots of hard work cutting bureaucracy, fixing streetlights, cleaning up blight and addressing crime. Turnaround also means creating a compelling and expansive vision of a new Detroit that is credible and that people who live in Detroit, and people who live elsewhere and care about and are connected to Detroit, can participate in.

What I would like to hear is all of our leaders — the mayor, Orr, union leaders, business leaders, Gov. Snyder — come together and talk with one voice. In public relations and crisis communication one of the things we say over and over again is that the single most important strategy critical to success is a consistent message. Redundancy works.

Q: Isn’t it naïve to suggest that all of those folks are going to be on the same page?

A: Let’s start with getting them in the same library, then maybe get them on the same book, then maybe the same page. I believe that on some level all these leaders share some common values and common beliefs about the future of Detroit. So if we can find those values and articulate those values in a way that’s compelling, we have a start to solving the problem.

Detroit Future City

The Troy-based Kresge Foundation, which has pledged $137 million to Detroit initiatives since 2009, is one of the biggest players in helping to reinvent Detroit. The foundation also funded Detroit Future City, a sweeping plan developed with community partners that offers a vision for Detroit favoring concentrated redevelopment in viable areas and converting vacant land into green uses.

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Kresge Foundation President Rip Rapson and Senior Program Director Laura Trudeau spoke about the challenge of articulating a single vision and message while the bankruptcy was still unfolding.

“There’s a difference between storytelling and story-making. We’re in the process of making the story. We’re not ready to tell the story,” said Rapson. “You have to get the pensions and health care costs figured out one way or the other. We’re talking about $15 billion to $20 billion in debt and liabilities. It’s hard to have a rational conversation about Detroit until that’s figured out one way or the other. But then as municipal innovation proceeds with public safety, lighting and demolition all being done differently, then the new story will form.”

Q: Isn’t there a risk in waiting too long for things to settle before trumpeting a singular vision?

Rapson: Yes. But sophisticated investors, not just business investors, but young people who want to move here and artists who want to make a life here have all made decisions around bedrock conditions that they think are improving. The fact that we’ve seen so much activity suggests we’ve created scaffolding that we can build upon once the ground truth of the bankruptcy takes hold. That scaffolding is extraordinary — it’s in transportation, real estate, entertainment, arts and culture, physical reclamation.

But the ground truth that may unravel all of this is the pain points in peoples’ lives: People who hold jobs but will not hold them after the bankruptcy. We have no idea how pervasive that will be, and no scaffolding could hold a complete collapse of human infrastructure support. That’s why overplaying the positive narrative at this point would be a mistake, because we have to see how this plays out.

Q: Different audiences may demand different messages.

Trudeau: There’s one set of messages that needs to go out to investors and the broader world about opportunities, and there’s another message for the residents of Detroit that they’re not being forgotten. We’re staying the course. We believe in the city. But we’re not landing on whether bankruptcy is a great thing or bad thing, because it’s going to look different from different peoples’ perspective depending on who is being affected.

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Leadership vacuum

One of the challenges in Detroit is that key players in the bankruptcy drama have credibility issues or other baggage that has prevented them from assuming a leadership role: Orr’s job is to restructure the city financially. Gov. Snyder is perceived by many Detroiters as an outsider. Outgoing mayor Dave Bing has been stripped of power by the emergency manager law. A business leader like Dan Gilbert could appear as being motivated by self-interest.

“There’s a difference between authority and leadership,” said Tim Sellnow, a professor of communication at the University of Kentucky. Sellnow studies crisis communication in a variety of settings, including natural disasters.

“People close to the city are looking for somebody to emerge as a leader, somebody that they see as one of their own, that comes from the city and is sensitive to their needs.”

Q: Does it have to be a single person?

A: It can be a group. But if there are multiple people, their rhetoric has to converge. If you have a group of people and the message isn’t consistent, that just breeds frustration.

Q: What are some good and bad examples?

A: Rudy Giuliani personified the recovery after 9/11 in New York. But he also had others working for him, and he was able to get a consistent message by getting the firefighters and police officers on the same page. That was no simple task. A bad example would be New Orleans after Katrina and the disparate messages that came out. You had a group of people who were speaking out who were very critical of each other.

Get past bankruptcy

The necessity of a consistent message is a truism of effective marketing, but tourism officials said the uncertainty of bankruptcy makes this difficult when it comes to promoting Detroit. State and local tourism leaders have collaborated a bit, but there’s been little coordination in the efforts between all of the players, including local and state officials, business leaders, political leaders and the nonprofit community. President and CEO of Detroit Metro Convention & Visitors Bureau Larry Alexander and the bureau’s Executive Vice President Michael O’Callaghan spoke about the challenge of speaking with a single voice.

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“We certainly have been staying in our own lane of promoting to meeting planners and leisure travelers and telling stories about the great things within the region,” said O’Callaghan. “Quicken Loans, for example, has its message. We have our message. The state has its message. But to be honest, I don’t know if it’s appropriate right now that we could or should all come together collectively with one message. We don’t know what that message is going to be until the emergency manager and bankruptcy issues are resolved. Maybe the best strategy right now is for all of us to just put out our own positive messages. However, the reality, too, is that we all have limited resources.”

Q: Will there be a time when all of the individual marketing efforts will merge into a coherent message?

O’Callaghan: There will come a time. We have to get through the bankruptcy. Once there’s a clear picture and city government is once again allowed to drive the bus it will be important that all of these different organizations get together and get a story out that’s uniform.

Alexander: The core of what all of us are doing is impacted by the image people have of Detroit. We all will need to work on communicating a bigger message that Detroit is on the comeback trail. And it is. Yes, bankruptcy is a real negative, but it’s part of our comeback. The bigger message is what’s happening here in Detroit with investment and how it’s turning itself around. That message will impact all of the individual messages that people are promoting. If we don’t do that, the negative perception people have across the country and internationally will continue.